Du Fu Collection

Author: Du Fu (Tang Dynasty) / Zhen Er Jie Ping
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Suddenly heard that the army had recaptured Jibei,
Tears filled my clothes at the first news.
Looking back, where were the worries of my wife and children,
I rolled up my poetry books with joy.
Singing in the daytime, I must drink freely,
With the youth as companions, it's good to return to my homeland.
Immediately from the Ba Gorge, through the Wu Gorge,
Then down to Xiangyang towards Luoyang. — Du Fu's "Hearing of the Army's Recapture of Henan and Hebei"
The wind is fierce, the sky is high, the monkeys cry in sorrow,
The streams are clear, the sand is white, the birds fly back.
Boundless fallen leaves fall with a rustling sound,
Endless Yangtze River rolls forward.
Feeling sad for autumn in the distance, I often travel as a guest,
In a hundred years of illness, I climb the platform alone.
Hardship and sorrow have added frost to my temples,
My disheveled life has stopped drinking muddled wine. — Du Fu's "Climbing High"
Du Fu (712–770), styled Zimei, was a great poet of the High Tang.
His original home was Xiangyang in Hubei, and he was born in Gongxian in Henan.
He was the grandson of Du Shenzhi, a poet of the Early Tang.
During the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang, he served as the Left Guardian of the Court.
Later, he entered Shu, and his friend Yan Wu recommended him as a counselor of the Jianshan Military Command,
And was added as an acting Vice Minister of Works.
Therefore, he is also known in later generations as Du Shiyi and Du Gongbu.
Du Fu was renowned alongside Li Bai, and the two are collectively known as "Li Du."
The core of his thought was the Confucian idea of benevolent governance.
He had the grand ambition of "leading the king to Yao and Shun and making the customs pure again."
He loved life, the people, and the beautiful mountains and rivers of his homeland.
He hated evil with a passion and criticized and exposed the corruption of the court and the darkness in social life.
He sympathized with the people and even longed to sacrifice himself to alleviate their suffering.
Du Fu was a great realist poet, having written over 1,400 poems in his lifetime.
His life and poetic creation can be divided into four periods.
Over 1,400 Du poems survive. They profoundly reflect the social panorama of more than 20 years before and after the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, vividly recording Du Fu's life experiences throughout his life;
They closely integrate social reality with personal life, achieving a perfect unity of content and form;
They represent the highest achievement of Tang poetry and are called "poetic history" by later generations.
However, Du Fu did not narrate objectively, writing history in verse;
Instead, while deeply and broadly reflecting reality, he expressed his subjective emotions through unique artistic means.
As Pu Qilong said: "The poetry of Shaoling embodies the temperament of one person and the events of three dynasties" ("Heartfelt Interpretation of Du Fu's Poetry").
Since the late Tianbao period, Du Fu wrote a large number of political and social poems.
Short poems such as "Washing the Armies," "Reflections," "The Journey of Li," "Three Quatrain Poems," "Sick Oranges," "The Thatched Cottage Ruined by the Autumn Wind," and "Another to Wu"
Long poems such as "Reflections from Kuizhou," "Past in Life," "The Cottage," and "Reflections"
Although their content varies, they all combine personal emotions with facts, with a strong lyrical tone.
War-themed poems make up a large number in Du Fu's works.
Du Fu had different attitudes toward wars of different natures.
He opposed the court's wasteful military campaigns that drained the country's resources, as seen in "The War Wagons" and "Going Up to the Rear Garden Mountain."
He supported suppressing rebellions and resisting foreign aggression, as seen in "Watching the Anxi Army Pass to Guanzhong to Wait for Orders in Two Poems," "Watching the Army," and "At the End of the Year."
The two sets of poems "Before the Outpost" and "After the Outpost" both praise the heroic bravery of the soldiers and condemn the king's insatiable expansion and the commander's arrogance and extravagance;
They summarize the unfortunate fate of countless brave soldiers through the first-person account of a single soldier.
In "The Three Officials" and "The Three Partings," the poet sympathizes with the people's suffering and is indignant at the barbarity of the Latins;
However, with a major enemy at the door and a shortage of soldiers, he could only painfully and tearfully comfort those who were conscripted,
Showing the author's inner conflict of sharp and complex contradictions.
Du Fu also wrote many poems praising nature.
The subjects of his poems were often connected to himself and to current events, blending emotion, scenery, and current affairs, not just scenery and emotion.